


Cops and Crooks

by bees_questionmark



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Angst, Background Poly, Canon-Typical Violence, Canon-typical language, Cop!Miles, Detective!Miles, F/M, FAHC, FAHC Au, FAHC!Reader, FakeHaus, Female!Jack, GTA V AU, Gen, Guilt, Hurt/Comfort, Kidnapping, M/M, Mom!Jack, Polyamory, Reader Insert, Secret Identity, Secret Identity Fail, Secrets, Sniper!Reader, Torture, Trust, assassin!reader, dad!geoff, gender ambiguous reader, hidden identity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-06
Updated: 2018-09-21
Packaged: 2019-05-19 00:45:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 17
Words: 19,827
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14863436
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bees_questionmark/pseuds/bees_questionmark
Summary: In Los Santos, everyone’s life was a dangerous gamble of emotional attachments. When a cute stranger bumps into you at your local grocery store, your life was about to get complicated.





	1. Complicated

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fic I've ever posted! I'm trying to keep the reader gender ambiguous. Please give me feedback! I would love to grow as a writer.

Your life was already complicated. In Los Santos, everyone’s life was a dangerous gamble of emotional attachments. While most people survived the big crime rate of the city unscathed, the looming thought of imminent danger plagued every citizen of the city.

With so many rival gangs, that looming danger plagued the thoughts of the dangerous criminals. Especially on the dating scene.

You tried not to date people outside your circle or at least your profession. You didn’t want to hide who you were from a potential partner, or worse; tell them you were an assassin that worked closely with the Fake AH crew.

You liked to consider yourself freelance, but you could count on one hand the amount of jobs you’d taken from outside the crew since you first started working with them.

When a cute stranger bumps into you at your local grocery store making you drop the carton of eggs you were inspecting, your life was about to get even more complicated.

“I am so sorry,” the cute stranger’s mouth agape at the mess he accidentally caused.

Your face reddened too; you typically liked not to draw attention to yourself. A low profile made your job easier. “Don’t worry about it,” you laughed nervously.

“No, really,” he insisted. “I should have been paying more attention to where I was going.”

“It’s not a big deal,” you still tried to downplay it.

“You’re covered in eggs,” he pointed out. You looked down; you weren’t completely covered, but you did have spots of egg white on your pants and shoes. They were your comfy clothes, so you weren’t too concerned about keeping them spotless. “Let me make it up to you. Please,” you couldn’t say no to those puppy dog eyes.

“Alright,” you paused realizing you didn’t have a name to match his handsome face.

“Miles. Miles Luna.” He held out his hand. You grabbed it and offered your name, not really thinking about how a fake name would probably be a better idea. More distance between you and this civilian.

“There’s a coffee shop at the front of the grocery store, and if coffee isn’t your thing, I hear they’ve got a great tea and hot chocolate selection.”

He had a contagious smile. You’d heard people say that before, but you’d never met anyone with a smile as, well, as contagious as his. “That sounds great,” you looked at the few items in your cart and figured grocery shopping could wait until after your coffee date. There was nothing frozen in it so you abandoned your cart, which, except for emergencies, you’d never done before.

You both walked to the front of the store which housed a local coffee shops with a name you didn’t quite understand. Los Santos hipsters.

You ordered; he paid. The two of you sat down, waiting for your drink of choice. Small talk filled the space between you for a few moments, even after your drinks came. You teased him about his sugary coffee topped with whipped cream.

“Look,” he chuckled. “I’m not going to pretend to like my coffee black to seem more manly. I’m not going to lie to you because I want you to like me.”

He was a refreshing breath of air in the Los Santos smog. Someone honest. Your stomach tightened when you thought that you couldn’t reciprocate that honesty. You realized you’d been staring at him smiling for a few seconds. Damn, you hadn’t been this tongue tied around a stranger in a while. 

“So,” you started, “how do you like to spend your time?”

Miles sat back in his seat bringing his mostly full cup of coffee with him. He’d eaten all the whipped cream first, and still had a spot of whipped cream in his short beard. You didn’t say anything because you kinda thought it was cute.

“I spend a lot of time at work, honestly. But I love playing video games in my free time.” He ran a hand through his curly brown hair.

You liked video games, “What kind of video games?”

“All kinds. I just finished the new God of War.”

“Me too! I couldn’t put the controller down!”

Then, you both bellowed, “Boy!” at the same time. You two talked about your favorite video games, and the one’s you’d played recently. The conversation shifted naturally and seamlessly to your favorite and least favorite movies.

He hadn’t seen your favorite bad movie, “You have to come over some time and watch it. I have it on Blu-Ray and provide my own commentary. Which is what makes it worth watching.” You both laughed. Did you really just invite him to your home that quickly? Granted is was an open, someday invitation, but still an invitation.

“That sounds like a great time.” Neither of you had stopped smiling in a while. Your empty mugs long forgotten until you got a text, and he checked the time.

The smiles dropped from both your faces as you both announced that you had to get going.

“It’s work,” you both said hovering for a few seconds, not wanting to head to the real world.

“Oh!” Miles pulled out his phone. “Can I get your number? I’d like to see you again.”

“I’d like that, too.” You typed your name and phone number in his contacts. He texted you his name and a selfie for yours. You made a note of the number in an effort to memorize it should you have to ditch this phone and/or phone number.

You both said Goodbye, and went your separate ways. Hopeful that it wasn’t a final goodbye and that you’d see one another again sometime soon.


	2. Big Brother

You skipped grocery shopping, which you’d be mad about later, but that was a problem for later. You drove your motorcycle to the Fake AH Crew penthouse. Most of the crew used to live there, but as their lives grew too big and the crew grew, there wasn’t enough room in the penthouse for everyone. Plus Geoff and Jack got tired of the place being a mess all the time after Michael decided to stop cleaning up after everyone. He was the first to move out with his wife, Lindsay. 

Geoff and Jack kicked Ryan, Jeremy, and Gavin out of the penthouse. They moved in to an apartment together as roommates. The B crew had a pool going on about whether they’d kill each other or fuck each other and how long that would take.

You still had a few more weeks before the three got over their pride and obliviousness and became an item. Trevor, the real leader of the Fakes, lived in a sub penthouse. A very similar penthouse a floor beneath Geoff and Jack.

They had to keep up appearances that Geoff was still in charge to keep the real leader safe from attacks, from rival crew members or cops.

You parked your bike in the garage and rode the elevator to the top. You didn’t know if the Fakes owned the whole building, but you’d never seen anyone here that wasn’t a part of the crew.

The doors opened directly into the penthouse, and you were greeted by most of the crew. Lindsay asked if you had a good time at the store. “I’ve never seen you walk in smiling. Like, sure we can get you to smile, but I’ve never seen it unprompted,” she explained.

“I did have a good. I stopped at that hipster coffee shop in the front. It’s good.”

“Yeah?” Lindsay was nonplussed. “I’m pretty sure good coffee isn’t what got your mouth stuck in that smile.

“There was someone,” you blushed thinking about Miles and the several hours you spent talking today.

Lindsay got really excited about a someone, but before she could ask for more, Geoff called your name. You were wanted in the conference room. “This isn’t the end of this conversation,” Lindsay whispered.

You walked into the conference room as Michael, Gavin, Ryan, and Jeremy walked out all decked out as their alter egos.

“Heist?” You asked as you walked in.

——

Just a few short hours later, you were laying on top of a building across the street from an unsuspecting bank. You were dressed all in black to blend in with the night. You’d even taken a page from the Vagabond’s book, and you had some faceprint that distorted your features to ensure that no one could recognize you.

You kept your eye glued to your scope, watching the rest of the crew and pick off anyone that might cause them trouble. Your senses stayed sharp. Watching and listening for signs of trouble before it became trouble. 

You loved your sniper rifle. Your longest relationship was with her. She stood by you at your lowest lows and your highest highs since you got her.

——

You were born into a poor family. Always worrying about where your next meal was coming from. Your mom worked 2 jobs, as well as being a full time mother.  
Your father was sick for a long time, and passed away when you were 16. Leaving a gaping hole in your family and an insurmountable mountain of hospital debt your mother would struggle to clamor her way out of for the rest of her life.

As the oldest child, you had to help out. You took a full time job at your local retail outlet, as well as attending high school full time. One day, shortly before your 18th birthday, army recruiters had set up a booth in your cafeteria. They promised you good steady pay. You could make enough to send your mom money every month. You could even take your last semester of high school online and get your diploma.

It wasn’t a dream come true, but you’d given up on dreams the first morning you had to put your mom to bed after waking up for school finding that she’d passed out at the kitchen table surrounded by stacks of overdue bills.

You signed up to leave for bootcamp the morning of your 18th birthday. Your mom cried when you told her, but she knew you had weighed the options, and this may have been the only way for you to go to college.

You didn’t end up going to college anyway. Your life went a different direction than you’d planned when your Sergeant noticed that you were a surprisingly good shot despite your inexperience, and encouraged you to go into a marksman program to become a sniper.

The faintest sound of sirens approaching drew your attention back to the heist. You set off some explosions Michael and Jeremy had set up down the road to create a detour for the cops and warn/buy time for the crew that was still in the bank.

You kept an eye on the road that the detour lead around to in case you had to pick off a few cops before the rest of the crew made their getaways.

You heard commotion over your ear bud; but it sounded like they were on their way out. You kept a vigilant eye on the road until they said they were all in the clear.

Just before the last of them were out of the bank, you saw the first squad car. You shot the tires of the first car before it fully left the alleyway you’d forced them through.

“Cops are almost at the bank, I need you guys out now!” You yelled putting a finger to the comm in your ear.

You didn’t like when there was a stand off between your crew and the police. It was messy, and caused unnecessary death on all sides of the fight. Even though as an assassin, you got used to people dying, you didn’t like senseless death, or death for the sake of death.

“I’m the last one out,” Jeremy said hopping in his getaway car. “We’re in the clear.”

You were still watching the cops through the scope. You couldn’t get a good look at the driver’s face, but he seemed familiar.

“Okay, Big Brother, you can get down from there,” Geoff used you nick name.

It’d annoyed you at first. It started as a joke after a heist about how they felt like always watching. It stuck after that, probably because of your protest. It’s now the name you were known by in the criminal world. Fortunately only your name and reputation were known; you’d be a bad assassin otherwise.

You climbed down the fire escape on the side opposite the cops, mind still wandering back to the familiar cop. You couldn’t place him, nor did you see enough of his face to recognize.

————

You got back to your apartment in the early hours of the morning. You barely had the engird to wash your face paint off, but your skin would be mad at you in the morning if you didn’t. Before you toppled face-first into bed, you pulled out your phone to check your bank app to see if they’d wired you your money yet. The phone buzzed with a text from Miles. Just seeing his name made you smile.

“Do you wanna grab lunch with me tomorrow?”

“Yea! Got any place in mind?”

Once the details of where and when to meet up were ironed out, you collapsed on your bed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're still kinda in exposition, but I hope it's not too much information at once. Please give me feedback! Or just talk to me!


	3. Terrible Station Coffee

After he left the coffee shop, Miles hurried through the store picking up a few necessities and ran home to get ready for work. He finally got to the station a few minutes late.

“Where have you been?” Kyle accused the second Miles was in sight.

“Dude, I’m like 3 minutes late.”

“I’m with Kyle,” Kerry chimed in. “You’ve never been this late before. Not without an emergency.”

“I really doubt that,” Miles retorted. “Can’t a guy just be a few minutes late for work without his friends acting like it’s the end of the world?” He spit with no real venom behind his words. They all liked to give each other a hard time over nothing. Miles was usually the first to start it when he’s not on the receiving end.

They settled down at their desks discussing the latest rumors about various gang members, including but not limited to the Fake AH Crew, discussing which ones might be true and which had to be blatant lies.

A few minutes into a heated debate about a secret new leader of the Fakes, Cole stood up to get some coffee and offered to get anyone else’s. Kyle gestured to the mostly full mug on his desk, while Kerry enthusiastically told him how much cream and sugar he wanted.

When Miles refused a coffee, three heads swiveled to him, eyes blinking in shock.

“Are you trying new ADD meds?” Kerry asked.

“No, I had some earlier,” Miles didn’t look up from his computer where he was cataloguing some files about some stolen weapons. Being a cop wasn’t as glamorous as it looked on TV.

“Miles, you always wait for our terrible free station coffee,” Kyle said.

“Is everything I do today going to be analyzed so much?”

“I mean, that’s what happens when you work with people who analyze patterns of behavior for a living,” Cole said placing Kerry’s coffee next to his keyboard.

“Fair,” Miles conceded.

“So what coffeeshop deserved your well earned cash?” Kyle asked.

“You know that hipster shop in front of the grocery store by my apartment?”

“The really expensive one that you said you’ve never seen anyone buy anything from?” Kerry asked.

“Yeah, that one.”

His friends all looked at each other. “So, who is she?” Kyle asked.

“Or he!” Kerry said winking.

Miles face turned bright red, and he choked on his spit. “I wasn’t with anyone! I went to get coffee by myself when I went out for groceries earlier.”

“Methinks he doth protest too much,” Cole accused.

Kyle already grabbed his phone from his desk before Miles could react, and read your name out loud. “Aw, no contact picture? Dude, we gotta know if they’re good enough for you.”

“And you can do that from one photo?” Miles asked.

“I’m very good at my job,” Kyle boasted. “Do you want me to run a background check of the name?”

“You’re such a romantic, KT,” Miles reached for his phone. Usually his height was an advantage in keep away, but there was only so much it could help when he had to reach over desks and computers.

“Look, I don’t want you dating a murderer.”

“They’re not a murderer.”

“You don’t know that.”

Kerry spoke up, “If they were a murderer, you would have their real name anyway.”

“See?” Miles gestured to Kerry. “Besides, it’s unfair for me to know about every speeding ticket or noise complaint they’ve ever gotten, when they can’t do the same for me. They don’t even know I’m a cop.”

“Do you know what they do?” Kerry asked, less an interrogation and more like conversation.

“We only met today at the store. I don’t know their entire life story.”

“Ooh, so this wasn’t even an app date?” Kyle teased.

Miles rolled his eyes and snatched his phone back. He turned back to his computer, ending the conversation about his love life.

A few hours later, Miles and Kyle are driving around on patrol, when several reports are phoned in about a Fake AH Crew bank heist. They loved heists. Thrill seekers, all of ‘em. The just lived for drama and chaos.

They also knew which nights had less cops on duty for whichever precinct they wanted to hit. There were a lot of dirty cops in this city. Miles knew some of them, and while he was too moralistic to take dirty money to look the other way, he had enough self preservation not to report the other cops for being crooked.

Kyle answered the radio, saying they were on their way while Miles turned around to head toward the bank. They ended up leading a pack of cruisers to the heist. More would join from other directions. The dispatcher said that the silent alarm hadn’t been tripped, but they’d received several phone calls from passers by. Which meant they either used their hacker and messed with the security system, or it was an inside job.

That would be an interesting tactic for the crew. Plant someone in the bank and then rob it. If they did have a new leader, he might be trying new strategies. He’s have to check the employment records and check out anyone that started in the last week or two, and see if anyone quits after the heist. 

Miles turned the corner. Bank almost in sight when something blew up in front of them; collapsing into the road. Swerving around, trying not to get hit by rubble, Miles lost his speed and bearings before turning and heading down an alley in an emergency detour.

Lots of roads were blocked off making Miles take a long way around to get back to the scene of the crime. It was almost like he was being lead to a certain point, but he wouldn’t realize that until later. Adrenaline can make it hard to notice stuff like that.

After what felt like ages on that bad detour, he finally caught sight of the bank again. He heard a loud bang, and realized his tires had just blown up. Miles got out of his car and grabbed a helmet.

He ran toward the bank just as he saw a blur of purple and orange fleeing the bank. He ran inside only to find not a single Fake left in the building.

They took statements from both employees and customer witnesses. Several people mentioned the need to get out of this city. Miles asked the bank manager for a record of all the employees and their start dates, in case it helped.

“You think this might be an inside job?” she asked. “It was the Fake AH Crew.”

“We can’t leave any stone unturned, ma’am,” Miles said as she wrote down his professional email.

Kyle waggled his eyebrows at Miles from behind the cute bank manager. Miles tried not to roll his eyes in front of her.

After she left, Kyle headed Miles’ way. But before he could tease about the bank manager, another cop ran up to him about a sniper on the roof of the building across the street.

That’s probably who took out his tires. Some shells were bagged, but that was unlikely to yield anything. There’s no registry for guns or ammo like there is for cars, and the Fakes wouldn’t have bought those guns legally. Those casings will either collect dust in the evidence locker or mysteriously disappear at some point.

Miles thanked the officer for his help and directed him to evidence collection. “A sniper?” Kyle asked when the kid walked away.

“They’ve been working with one on and off for a little over a year, but it’s been mostly for skirmishes with other gangs. I think today he was aiming at us.”

“Well, he doesn’t want us dead, or I’m sure we would be.”

Miles went home shortly after that. He hoped it wasn’t too late to text you. He swallowed the anxiety of putting himself out there and sent, “Do you wanna grab lunch tomorrow?” Yup, not too short and familiar, but not weird and formal either.

He hopped in the shower to avoid anxiously waiting for a response.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, again! This is the end of what I had written when I posted the fic, so now everything is really up in the air. I would love to hear what you think of it so far!


	4. Toothbrush

Lunch the next day was followed by dinner the day after. Then a movie the following Friday. Soon you were spending nights at each others’ apartments.

You really liked Miles. One morning, when you woke up, you realized that his toothbrush was sitting on the counter next to yours. At this point, you needed to have an uncomfortable conversation with him.

So you texted Lindsay instead. She would be able to help you weigh your options and clear your head. She told you to come over to her house because it was the nanny’s day off and Michael was with the crew doing something destructive.

You always liked an excuse to see Iris anyway, and Lindsay knew it. She greeted you at the door with Iris in her arms. Iris smiled at you with her chubby cheeks. “Is this about Mr Perfect?” Lindsay asked.

“I never called him that, but yeah, it is.”

“Did he do something not so perfect?”

“The opposite actually. Which is the issue.”

“I don’t get it. If he’s great, where’s the problem?”

“Because I’m,” you looked around and lowered your voice even though you were in her living room alone, and Iris wasn’t going to snitch on you, “a contract killer.” You go back to your normal voice. “And he can’t know that.”

“What does he think you do?”

“I don’t know. It hasn’t come up; it’s only been, like, a month.”

“You don’t have a fake job? All the moms in the neighborhood think that Michael is an actuary and I work for an acquisition company. Those are boring enough things that no one ever asks for more information. In fact, no one knows what an actuary even is, so they’re too scared to ask anything about it.”

“That works? What does your nanny think you do?”

“She doesn’t care, not as long as she gets her paycheck. She only has to deal with the baby. You just have to pick something plausible, boring, and not something people will ask you for favors with. Like, don’t say you’re a dentist. People will ask you for stuff.”

“I’m not sure how well that would work if I want to ask Miles to be my boyfriend. Wouldn’t he ask questions? Because he’s actually interested in me?”

“Boyfriend?” Lindsay’s face lit up. “I didn’t know how serious you were about him.”

“It may sound silly, but I found his toothbrush on my counter when I woke up this morning, and I realized we were headed in that direction. I want to. I really like him, but I’m scared.”

“Being scared is normal for everyone because it’s something new, and the whole assassin thing doesn’t help. I don’t know exactly what your going through. Michael and I met through the crew. But I think if he’s the right guy, it will work out.”

———

You left Lindsay’s house with more catharsis from a friend who listens than any actual advice, and you still weren’t sure exactly what to do in the future, but you liked Miles. A lot. He was sweet.

You texted Miles about meeting up when he got off work, and you got an immediate confirmation. A smile crept onto your face; you knew that this honeymoon phase, always being each other’s top priority, wouldn’t last forever. So you cherished it before he remembered he had friends who still loved him and he had himself to take care of.

It’s not a bad thing in relationships to want to spend time apart or alone, but that beginning phase, when there’s no where else you’d rather be than by each others side, was a beautiful part of the relationship.

Not many of your relationships made it far enough for the kind of domesticity that you wanted. Some had, but your job made it difficult for so many reasons.

You decided to spend the rest of your alone time at the FAHC firing range. Maybe you could get out of your head for a little bit.

When you got to the range, you found you weren’t going to be completely alone. Ryan was practicing throwing knives at different dummy targets.

He looked up as you got closer and waved. “You don’t usually come here to practice your knife throwing unless something’s bothering you, Vagabond,” you said once you got close enough that you wouldn’t have to shout

He chuckled dryly, “Yeah, roommate stuff.”

You’d heard that tensions were high in their apartment, but they hadn’t quite figured out what everyone else had yet.

“I’m here to talk if you want.” You saw the slight hesitation in his eyes. Sure, he was the scary Mad Mercenary. The emotionless Vagabond. But he was also Ryan around the people he trusted. Just a human. “But if you just wanna stab stuff, that’s cool, too.” You smiled at him.

“Thanks,” He put his noise cancelling headphones back on, and started stabbing the dummies. You unpacked your rifle.

The crew, and many other crews, were lucky to have such an expansive desert right outside the city. The shooting range went on for miles so you could practice sniping. 

While, yes, your sniper rifle was your favorite, it wasn’t the only weapon you were skilled at, or had used for jobs. You were almost an expert on most firearms at this point, and you could definitely hold your own at close quarters combat. With or without weapons. You liked to spar with the crew sometimes to keep up the skill. Ryan and Jeremy especially loved to spar, since their jobs usually didn’t require hand-to-hand very often.

On occasion, you’d take a job that requested something specific that you had to quickly become and expert on. Like a sword, or a rope, or faking an accident. You’d even been once asked to stage an auto-erotic asphyxiation. You still weren’t sure whether that was like a fetish thing, or a revenge thing on your clients part. Look, people are weird, and while you probably saw the weirdest parts of society, if you got a paycheck, you really didn’t care. You killed people for a living after all.

You used to care, and have morals. But after you started doing sketchy stuff for your own government, you quickly learned that morals weren’t a great thing in your line of work. And after you left the US Army to work for a private army, you really couldn’t afford to have morals. That amorality lead it’s way to contract killing. Surprisingly not that weird a step from hired gun to contract killer.

Your phone buzzed in your pocket. You’d lost track of time. Miles texted you that he’d just gotten out of work, and he wanted to know if you needed to see him urgently, or if he had time to go home and change.

You told him to take his time. You needed to get back in town anyway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going to try to upload every Friday, but this is my first fic. So we'll see how well a schedule goes.


	5. Detective

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a bit short, but this has been such a busy week, I'm just happy that I got anything published tbh. Side note: I don't really know how the police work, so this is how it works in Los Santos.

There was a rumor going around that the chief was announcing who made detective later that day.

Miles was so nervous and excited, he felt like he was vibrating. He didn’t think he was actually shaking too bad, but he wasn’t positive. He had wanted to be a detective since he was a kid; it was even one of the first things he said at his interview with this precinct.

Kyle, Kerry, and Cole were practically buzzing with excitement and nerves as much as Miles was. 

A few months ago, the four had decided they were all going for the detective promotion together. There was a lot of competition on the promotion ladder because of how much safer it was in Los Santos to be a detective than a cop. It still wasn’t super safe, but people get attached to the city and wont leave even when it’s overrun by crime, so they take what they can get. 

Miles is in the precinct finishing up some paperwork on his dinosaur of a computer. New computers weren’t even that expensive, but it was too much for the city to shell out every few years. He heard a cough on the other side of the desk.

The chief’s assistance stood behind Kyle. “Chief Haddock would like to see you in his office,” she was trying to look serious, but a smile crept cracking through the facade.

The two shared an excited look before standing up and composing themselves. Pretending to be professional as they walked into Gray’s office.

“Congratulations,” he said when they sat down, “You two are our next detectives!” Gray, Kyle, and Miles celebrated for a minute or so with smiles and laughter.

“What about Kerry and Cole?” Miles asked after the initial joy settled in.

“There’s so much competition in this city for detectives, that I only get a few promotions at a time. I only got two slots for new detectives and you have been at this precinct longer. I have to make a lot of difficult decisions. So next time I get promotions, they’ll have to jump through the hoops again. But they’re my next by seniority, and they’ll probably get the promotion unless something crazy happens.”

As Kyle and Miles left the office, Gray told them that the city was having a small ceremony that coming weekend for all the newly promoted detectives, and they were invited. They could invite as many people as they want. The seating is first come first serve, and it’s not catered or anything.

“Really selling this ceremony, aren’t you?” Kyle quipped.

Gray waved them away, and asked his assistant to get Kerry and Cole so he could tell them their bad news.

———

“Hey,” Kyle said later as they were eating lunch in their squad car. “Maybe if we go to the ceremony, I’ll finally get to meet this perfect person you’ve been dating.”

Miles really liked you. The two of you could talk for hours. He thought this relationship could go somewhere. You two spent a lot of time together. You both spent nights at each other’s places. He wanted to ask you to officially be exclusive. He didn’t think that it would change anything about your relationship, but it would be nice to know you were definitely on the same page. 

“I don’t think Kerry and Cole would enjoy you meeting them before they do.”

“We’ll just invite Kerry and Cole to go out for drinks after. C’mon, we’ve got to make sure they aren’t a murderer”

“Why do you think everyone I date is a murderer?”

“Because I care about you, man!”

Miles’ phone buzzed with your text asking to hang out after work. “Fine, I’ll ask tonight. I guess I’ll have to tell them I’m a cop, too.”

“They still don’t know you’re a cop? Why?”

“We don’t talk about work much, and I didn’t want to worry them because it’s a dangerous job.”

Kyle sat in a stunned silence for a few seconds. “So, you don’t know what they do either?”

“Hasn’t come up.”

“Dude,” Kyle said accusingly before their lunch was over and they went back to patrolling.


	6. Acquisition

You got home, and washed up as quick as you could. You were halfway through getting dressed when Miles texts you that he’s on his way.

Just as you finished getting ready, there’s a knock at the door. You check your hair in the mirror one last time before you answer the door.

“Hey there,” he beamed as the door opened. “You look,” his eyes flicked down and drank you in, “amazing.”

You’d found you were almost always smiling when he was around. “Thanks, you look good yourself.” He kissed you and you briefly thought back to your first kiss.

————

After your first movie date, you caught a quick dinner. You both wanted something quick and opted for your favorite fast food place. As he parked his car, the sky opened up and you both had to run through suddenly pouring rain to the door. Once the two of you were under the canopy and filled with the giddiness only an unexpected run through the rain can cause, he kissed you. Neither of you were expecting it.

His eyes grew wide and he pulled away, an apology already on his lips, when you grabbed his face, pulling him back to you and kissed him again.

In retelling, it sounds like a perfect romantic first kiss. But at the time, you were both nervous wrecks, his beard was scratchy, your teeth collided, and you wouldn’t trade it for any other kiss in the world.

————

You hadn’t really planned other than ‘get him to your apartment and ask him to be your boyfriend before you lose your nerve.’

“I know you asked me to hang out,” Miles started, “but I had something to ask you.”

Your brain quickly flashed to all the skeletons in your closet, and you blurted, “Do you want to me my boyfriend!” It was barely a question, but it was out there now.

He jumped in shock at the yelling before smiling and saying, “Nothing would make me happier. And… that’s actually kinda what I wanted to ask you about, too.”

You calmed down and sat next to Miles on your couch. He continued, “So I got a promotion,” You interrupted with a quick congratulations and a hug. “Thanks,” his smile was always so genuine, “And they’re doing this, um, ceremony. It’s this weekend, and I was hoping you’d want to go with me? And if you can’t, my friends wanted to go out for drinks after, and they really want to meet you?”

“Yes, of course I’d love to meet your friends!” You could feel the weight being lifted from both of you. You got up to get drinks, and he joined you in the kitchen to make dinner with you.

You had a wandering thought wondering what kind of job has ceremonies for promotions, and he’d opened the door on talking about work, but you weren’t sure you wanted to step in quite yet. You knew meeting his friends, and going to a work ceremony, so you’d have to learn, but you wanted to delay the question if you could.

You hung out for a few hours, you watched a movie, and the new episode of the TV show you were watching together. After your second round of Mario Kart, Miles saw the time. It was getting late and he had an early morning ahead of him. You two drifted to the door, neither of you wanting him to leave. You talked by the door for a good 20 more minutes.

When he finally convinced himself that he had to go, he opened the door, and the question you’d been delaying bubbled up and out of your mouth faster than you could stop it. “What kind of job has a ceremony when you get promoted?”

You’d walked through the door he’d opened up, and there was no going back.

“Oh, right,” he paused in the doorway looking sheepish, “I got promoted to detective.”

“You’re a cop?” You hoped the question sounded calmer than you felt.

“I hope that’s not a deal breaker.” He chuckled nervously.

Everything in you screamed that is should be. It should be a deal breaker, and you should definitely stop seeing him and move away and change your name. But you found yourself saying, “Of course it isn’t.”

He smiles and kissed you again. “Sorry, I’ve really got to go. We can talk more later?” He paused for a second, you nodded in agreement, and he left. You locked the door behind him.

You threw yourself onto the couch. You didn’t know what to do. It was late. You called Lindsay. She would still be awake.

“Hey! How did it go? Is he still Mr. Perfect?” she laughed.

You didn’t give her any pleasantries, no hello, nothing to lead her up to you panic-blurting, “He’s a cop!”

“Are you ok?” her voice dropped into her serious octave. “Was it a setup? Where are you?”

“I’m fine,” tears were pricking your eyes, stinging, and threatening to fall. “I don’t think he knows. He just left my apartment.”

“Are you still at your apartment? I’m on my way over. Keep talking to me.”

“Yes, I am. He- he invited me to a ceremony for his promotion and to meet his friends, and after avoiding talking about work for so long, I asked him what he did. Like an idiot. He asked me if being a cop was a deal breaker, and for some fucking reason I said no!”

She stayed on the line with you the whole drive to your apartment. She fished more details out of you. You explained how well the night seemed to be going before you opened up your goddamned mouth.

She comforted you, “It was only a matter of time before you found out anyway. I would rather you know now than when you walked into the ceremony and were surrounded by cops.” She was a blunt person, straight forward almost to a fault. You loved that about her. 

She knocked on your front door even though you knew she was there. “So,” she said when you let her in, “What are you going to do about it?”

You looked at her, shocked. Your brain hadn’t gotten that far yet. That’s why you made a good team, and why she was maybe your best friend. You discussed options; ending the relationship and changing your name again, continuing on with the relationship and lying to him until it ends on its own or because he found out and moving away and changing your name, coming clean and figuring it out from there. There were a lot of options, but none of them ideal.

“What was that you said earlier about a fake job?” You asked her.

“Oh, so your going to lie to him.” When you threw her a look to say ‘stop judging me’, she backtracked. “Look, you have no moral high ground here. You kill people for a living. We’re both criminals. I make no moral judgements. You can and should lie to him.”

“I wish I’d have known how permanent a life of crime would be back when I decided money was more important than morals.”

“So are you going to that ceremony?”

“Yes, I am. What does an acquisition company do?”

“I have no idea, and no one has ever asked.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ooh, drama. The ceremony is next chapter, I've got an idea where this all is going, but if you have ideas, and want to share thoughts, be my guest. I clearly have a comma issue lol. Oh, now I wish I'd have made this 10 more words.


	7. Detective

It was the morning of Miles’ ceremony. You’d been practicing your lies because he told you his friends were going to grill you. Only he and his partner were going to be at the ceremony and his other friends would be meeting up. It was originally just going to be his work buddies who didn’t get the promotion for bureaucratic reasons, but then some others found out and invited themselves.

You fretted about what to wear, in a way you never have before. You fussed with your hair. You really wanted to make a good first impression because even though you were lying, you still felt like you were making yourself vulnerable. What if they didn’t like you? Miles said they would, and even if they didn’t, he still would.

Ugh, this man was too sweet. Too nice for someone like you. You weren’t this nervous about your first solo job, why are you up in arms about a boy? When had your life come to this? You had a well established, if secret, career. You had money and a fairly nice apartment in a part of the city that you loved.

You never wanted to be that person who spent all their time focused on boys. You had more important stuff to deal with through high school, and it’s not like the military was a dating sim. You were focused on paying your mother’s rent, and your father’s medical bills.

You’d dated one or two guys in the military, but you’d found that military boys weren’t your type.

Before you could go much further into your head, Miles sent you a text saying he was at your building. You took a breath, and grabbed your keys, and headed to the garage to find your boyfriend.

————

He looked handsome in his suit. He always looked handsome to you. First thing in the morning with messy hair, puffy eyes and morning breath. In the soft glow after sex. At 2 in the morning when he caught a stomach bug and couldn’t keep anything down, and you brought him cold water and a trash can even though he insisted that he could just sleep on the bathroom floor. In the mood lighting at your favorite restaurant. And now in his oversized, police issue, brown suit. He was handsome.

It was a large ceremony; easy to get lost in. You were surprised it was outside. The commissioner must have felt safe here, or paid some people off to keep him safe for the day, because you could spot several holes in security. Not to mention someone could easily throw an explosive and Los Santos would lose a good chunk of it’s detective force. 

Stop, you scolded yourself. You were here to support your boyfriend not scope out the ceremony for weaknesses. It was just a habit any time you went anywhere to figure out the gaps you, or anyone really, could slip through undetected. But that wasn’t why you were here. 

You sat next to Miles in the audience. He looked like a kid on his birthday; he was so happy. His joy was contagious. He didn’t have to tell you he was achieving a life long dream, you could tell.

He just wanted to save people. To help this God forsaken city. From people like you. Before you could think further about how you don’t belong here. In this park full of armed officers of the law. Someone walked up to you and Miles. A dark-haired man with amazing eyebrows. Miles jumped up out of his chair and excitedly hugged the other man.

Miles got your attention, “This is Kyle.” You held out your hand to shake his. “He’s my partner.”

“You must be the mysterious other half.” He grabbed your hand for a firm handshake. He leaned over to Miles, “Way too cute for you.” He winked.

He sat next to you two just before the ceremony started. You listened as the commissioner and the mayor droned on about how important the police were and how well they did their job in this city and how they overcame the crime that ran rampant in the area. You had to stifle a chuckle here or there. The police didn’t run this city, and everyone knew it.

When the commissioner read off the list of newly appointed detectives, you felt a mixture of joy, pride, and guilt as you heard him call Miles Luna. You smiled and grabbed Miles’ hand. After so many names were listed off that you couldn’t keep track if you had tried, the ceremony was over.

“How many people made detective?” You said to Miles as you got up from your seats.  
He chuckled and shrugged. The three of you made your way to the park entrance behind all of the seating as you hear someone yell, “Detective Luna!”

You turn to the direction of the call to see a thin man with long, dark, curly hair. He had a camera and press badge around his neck. “I like the sound of that,” he said as you got close.

“Me too,” Miles joked with him.

The man looked at you and smiled, “I don’t believe we’ve met.” He held out his hand. “I’m Jon Risinger.” You shook his hand warily. You knew that name. He was a crime reporter. The go to authority for law abiding people on the gangs in the city. He probably knew more about the Fake AH Crew than any other civilian in Los Santos.

You smiled and gave him your name.

“Now that were off duty,” Kyle said to Jon, “You wanna join us for a drink? A bunch of our friends are meeting up to meet Miles’ new partner.” He gestured to you.

“I’m down,” Jon said packing his camera into a nice bag alongside an audio recorder.

“It’s just a few blocks south,” Miles said, as you all followed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't believe I got a full size chapter uploaded, and moved into a new apartment all in one week!


	8. Introduction

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Friday the 13th!

The four of you found the sports bar that you’d agreed to meet up at. Miles and Kyle looked around when you get inside. They made eye contact with two men, one short and blond and the other tall and lanky, they exchange excited smiles and you go to join them at their table.

The two strangers stood up when you get to the table. Miles introduced you to the two and you smiled. “I’m Kerry,” the short one smiled. He didn’t even see that you’d offered your hand to shake, but it wasn’t a rude gesture or anything. He seemed happy to meet you. 

“Cole,” the tall one said and enthusiastically shook your hand. “We work with Miles at the station. Well, worked, I guess. Right, detective?” 

“Hey, you guys are next in seniority for the promotion,” Kyle said. You and Jon shared slightly confused glances.

Just as you sat down, you heard a commotion of greetings aimed toward a blond man who looked like an amateur body builder. He walked through the Saturday afternoon crowd to your table.

“Man, the director did not want us to leave the set today. No take was good enough,” he said as he got closer.

“Don’t worry,” Kyle said. “We just got here, too.”

He turned and saw you, “Hi, I’m Blaine.” He smiled and shook your hand as you said your name.

“Actor?” You asked.

Jon leaned over to you and loudly whispered, “Porn.” You chuckled as Blaine’s face turned bright red.

“I’m want to be a director, but I’m still climbing the ladder,” Blaine said.

“I assume you don’t mean a porn director?” You shot a pointed glance at Jon, who just laughed.

“No!” Blaine laughed too. “No just a regular film director.”

The waitress stopped by and took your orders. That’s when the much awaited grilling began. Rapid-fire questions were thrown at you in an effort to determine whether you were good enough for their buddy. 

“Where are you from?” Kerry began.

“A boring flyover state that no one cares about, and that’s also why I left.”

“What brought you to Los Santos?” Someone else asked.

“Work, mostly. But the big city life called to me anyway.”

“How did you and Miles meet?”

“Hasn’t he told you?” You chuckled nervously. “We were at the grocery store and he ran into me breaking the entire carton of eggs I was holding.”

“Do you have family here?”

“I don’t really have much family at all, and the ones that are left don’t speak to me.”

Kyle smiled at Miles and asked, “What do you do for a living?”

This question you’d prepared for. Miles had warned you that they doing it suspicious that he didn’t know where you worked, or what you did. “I’m work freelance for an acquisition company. It’s international, so I sometimes get called in at all hours. I don’t usually like boring people about work, but Miles said you all wanted to know.” You hoped that didn’t sound too rehearsed. There was a reason you were an assassin and not a con artist.

You watched Miles shoot Kyle a look. You weren’t sure the story behind it, but you found it amusing anyway. Maybe that was the alcohol talking tho. You’d had a few drinks, so maybe you were just at the point were things were funnier to you than they actually were.

“Are you a murderer?”

“No?” You answered. “So, how did you and Miles meet?” You asked Kyle.

“We roomed together in college back in Texas getting our Criminal Justice degrees.”

You were curious how he met all his friends, and you wanted to hear more stories about Miles.

Kerry told you that they met in Los Santos at their current station, and bonded about being from Texas, and how much they love to write as a hobby. Cole’s story was similar, but more about a shared interest in Anime than writing. 

You turned to his non-officer friends and asked how they met Miles. Jon spoke up first. “I’m the head crime writer for the Los Santos Journal. I was working on an article about a recent bank heist. I thought it was a Fake AH Crew heist, but I needed sources to back that up. Speculation isn’t journalism. So, I wandered into the police station to try to flag down anyone who would listen. Miles, here, was the only one who would give em the time of day.

“He didn’t end up being able to help with that story much. Rookie cop at the time and all. But now he’s one of my main sources. He sure knows his criminals,” Jon said elbowing Miles. You laughed nervously, and tried to divert the attention from you by looking at Blaine.

He knocked back the rest of his drink, and said, “I was interning for a cheesy horror movie, Reaper, when the director started getting death threats and asked the LSPD for protection. This guy was a real asshole, it didn’t surprise anyone that he was getting death threats.

“The LSPD sent Miles to be this dude’s personal body guard. But the scariest thing on the set was the director. He treated everyone on set like they were born to serve him. I don’t know what I did to get on this guy’s bad side, but he had it out for me from the moment I set foot on set my first day of interning.

“He would just lay into me like I couldn’t do anything right. I brought water to him the wrong way one time. After, like, the third time Miles saw him do that, he gave the director an earful. He was the only guy with the balls to stand up to this dude.

“The director was upset that someone had the audacity to talk back to him. He didn’t get put in his place or anything; he actually fired Miles. But it was awesome of him to stand up to the director of the movie like that.

“Oh, yeah, and it turned out he was sending death threats to himself to hype up the movie. So, he’s in jail now.”

Miles made friends so easily; you were a tad envious. But really you just liked him all the more. You chatted with Miles and his friends for hours in that bar. The drinks kept coming; you had a great time.

None of you wanted to say goodbye, but you got a text telling you to be at the penthouse in a few hours. It was time for goodbyes, a long cold shower, and a pot of coffee.

You got into Miles’ car; he hadn’t been drinking because he’s a good person and a cop. Drinking and driving is bad, kids.

“I like your friends,” you were a smudge beyond tipsy.

“I think they like you too,” he smiled. “So, what does an acquisition company do?”

“It’s boring. I don’t wanna bore you.”

“But it’s what you do. I don’t think anything you do is boring.”


	9. Criminal Network

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whooo, it's been a long week. It feels like a month since I last posted. This story is writing itself now, and I'm just along for the ride apparently.

After the coldest shower of your life, and more than a pot of your own coffee (and a large cup of store-bought coffee on the way), you were sober enough at the penthouse.

“Sorry to call you in on such short notice, but a two-bit crew has ‘declared war’ on Fakehaus. The threats are getting more serious,” Geoff explained as soon as the last of the crew piled into the conference room.

The white board was plastered with information (and cartoon penises) about the crew, and pictures of every member. Some photos were mugshots, which made studying their features easier, but some were well hidden in a crowd with a red circle around them.

“The crew threatened to ambush the base at midnight tonight if Fakehaus didn’t give into their ridiculous demands,” Jack started listing off this crew’s demands like; money, a helicopter and jet, protection from the whole Fake network, etcetera.

You checked the time. You only had 2 hours until midnight.

“No one’s giving in to those bullshit demands, right?” Michael said after stifling a yawn.

“Of course we aren’t,” Geoff slammed a fist on the table.

“So what’s the plan?” Jeremy asked at the same time as the Vagabond asked, “Guns?”

Before the crew raided the armory, Geoff and Jack quickly gave out the plan and specific instructions. You were to set up a barricade by the main entrance to the Fakehaus HQ with Michael and Ryan, and make sure not a single enemy made it through the reinforced doors.

The Fakehaus headquarters was about an hour of reckless driving away. You hitched a ride in Ryan’s car with Michael and Gavin since you took your bike to the penthouse, and that wasn’t the safest car to drive into an ambush.

The two crews didn’t do much work together, but Fake AH had helped Fakehaus get their start, and the two crews had a strong alliance. The two started building a network of crews that had each others backs, but didn’t work together like one big crew. Thus the start of the Fake Network. There were always threats to the Fake Network. Start up crews deciding to use prison rules and go after the biggest crew in the city to make a name for themselves, but it never goes the way they think it will.

Sometimes the attackers were dumb and tried to pull big stunts like this for the glory, no matter how short-lived. Sometimes, however, you’d actually get a challenge. A crew that knew what they were doing and what they wanted.

You checked the glowing clock as Ryan hurtled down the mostly empty highway keeping a close eye on the police radar. You were maybe halfway to the headquarters.

Michael was in the backseat with you; you turned to him and asked, “How do you deal with Lindsay being in danger all the time working with the crew?”

He looked at you for a few seconds, “Please tell me when Lindsay and I started dating I talked about more than just her,” he called up front.

The two answered at the same time. Ryan simply said, “No.” While Gavin told him, “She’s still all you talk about, well now it’s your kid,”

“Fine,” Michael sighed. He turned back to you. “It’s about trust. I trust her ability, and she trusts mine. And when the day comes where that’s not enough, I’ll know she did her best and that she loves me. And she knows the same..”

“I’ve always been scared of relationships. Especially with people who aren’t in the life. Things can get messy,” you said.

Michael shrugged. “Any relationship can get messy.”

“Do any of us get to meet this guy?” Ryan asked, flying past street lights.

“Hmm,” you fake-pondered, “Should I introduce my boyfriend to the most wanted criminals in the city?” Sarcasm bleeding from the words.

“Hey!” Michael protested. “Most of us are wanted all over the state!”

“And world,” Gavin added.

“Nobody knows my face!” Ryan argued.

“We’ll talk about this later.” The car screeched to a stop at the small warehouse on the outskirts of town.

————

Jack was in a chopper overhead to keep an eye on the fight, and be prepared for an emergency exit should this turn south for the crew.

The place looked trashed. There were makeshift barricades; it looked like a war zone, or the old practice range from your army days. There weren’t any bodies lying around, so there hadn’t been a shoot out. But every single one of you could feel something wrong about this.

Gavin texted several members of the Fakehaus team, and knocked on the door using a coded knock. No one answered either. Geoff and Jeremy arrived moments later.  
Gavin told them that he couldn’t contact the other crew. No one on the team was responding.

“I was just talking to them hours ago,” Geoff scratched his head, mind wandering to the worst possibilities. “We can’t assume the worst, yet. Gavin, can you get into the building without them?” He pulled out his phone before Gavin could answer, so Gavin turned to the door as Geoff yelled into his phone, “Treyco, get out of the penthouse. The Fakehaus threat was a trap. No one’s here, not even Fakehaus. I’ll keep you updated, stay safe.”

Gavin kicked the door open, it was usually locked from the inside with a remote lock, so no one but the crew could get in. Gavin couldn’t have been in the building for more than a minute when the faint sound of sirens broke the tension, and Jack lowered the chopper ladder as soon as he’d seen the glow of the lights.

Geoff made sure he was the last one on the ladder. Nearly everyone was in the cab before the cop cars came fully into view. The Kingpin told you to take care of the cops, but several faces burst from your memory and you hesitated. Ryan caught your hesitation before anyone else, and took out the cops himself.

Ryan then asked Gavin about the inside of the hideout. “I couldn’t find anyone inside. There looked like a small struggle, they must have been caught by surprise.”

As the crew talked about the possibilities and plans, you mouthed ‘thank you’ to Ryan. He gave you a smile that said it was forgiven, but not forgotten from where he sat, sandwiched between Gavin and Jeremy.


	10. Unexpected Roommate

The chopper landed in a field close to the city. Some of the B-Team had met you there with your vehicles to help you get back to your secure apartments.

Geoff, Jack, and Trevor needed places to crash until either the penthouse was safe again, or they could find their own place. Not a lot of apartments will take cash payments, and most of the ones that will, aren’t the kind of places you want to live.

Michael offered to take in Geoff and Jack if the baby wasn’t going to annoy them too much. Ryan, Gavin, and Jeremy were pretty much at capacity in their tiny apartment. You, however, had an extra bedroom which Trevor graciously accepted.

“You won’t even know I’m there,” he smiled.

You chuckled, yeah, sure.

————

The two of you rode back to your apartment on your bike. Considering the unplanned nature of the move, Trevor didn’t have much to move into your spare room. 

You showed him where his room was, and reassured him that your apartment was secure. You rented the place, cash only, from a private owner to avoid as much of a paper trail as possible, and most of the B-Team helped you set up a top-of-the-line security system, as well as several low-tech security add ons. 

After he was sufficiently comfortable with the level of security, you crashed on your bed and passed out in your gang-war clothes.

Despite how tired you were, you didn’t get a restful night of sleep. You kept waking up out of nightmares of your apartment getting broken into, or getting kidnapped, or members of the crew getting kidnapped, or Miles and his friends getting hurt at your hand (or gun probably).

The next morning you didn’t feel like you slept at all. But you did get a good morning text from Miles, so not a terrible morning. You dragged yourself out of your room, and when you opened the door, you were hit in the face with the smell of eggs, toast, and coffee.

“Oh, cool, you’re up,” Trevor handed you a cup of freshly brewed coffee.

“How are you this awake already?” You asked, taking a sip from the mug.

“Caffeine.” He shrugged. “I figured breakfast would be a good ‘thank you’ for letting me stay here,” he laughed nervously. “Even if it’s just eggs and toast.”

“It’s a great ‘thank you’ and it’s no problem. I’d rather you be safe.”

He’d even cleared and set your table. Your phone buzzed. Miles’ shift ends early today, and he wants to take you out for lunch after. You smiled at your phone as you finish eating breakfast.

“You know, when he makes you smile like that, when he’s not even around, he’s a keeper.” You were pulled away from your screen and back to the table. To Trevor’s melancholy smile. His last girlfriend passed away during a big heist some months ago.

“I think he is, and that terrifies me.” You two shared a knowing look, and you realized that you should probably warn your boyfriend about your unexpected new roommate.

You told Miles that lunch sounded like fun, and you couldn’t wait. And then a “fair warning” text that one of your coworkers apartment was being demolished and would be staying with you until he could find a new place. It was a lie the two of you came up with together, and thus Trevor became the second of your friends to know that your new boyfriend was a cop.

————

When Miles came to pick you up, Trevor had stolen your laptop to talk to Geoff and try to locate Fakehaus. There was an awkward introduction between the two men, as they sized each other up (for different reasons). 

Trevor knew you liked him, but he wanted to make sure he had good intentions. Being in the crew was like having a ton of overprotective siblings despite the fact that you were a world renown assassin. Miles was nervous about the good-looking man living with his partner. He trusted you, but that doesn’t stop someone from being nervous.

As you walked down to the garage, “Am I going to meet more of your friends?” Miles asked.

“I guess you have to now. They’ve been asking about you, and Lindsay’s gonna be so mad that Trevor met you first,” you laughed. You were definitely going to hear from her later.

“Are all of your friends as attractive as Trevor?”

“Is that what’s worrying you?” You smiled. “You don’t have anything to be scared of. But I only hang out with the most attractive people in the city. There’s a competition. It’s televised.” You doubled down on this bad joke and didn’t stop until you were stopped with Miles’ lips on yours.

————

Weeks later, Trevor was still at your apartment closing in on the gang and what they’d done with Fakehaus. Miles and Trevor were becoming friends, and Lindsay kept bugging you to meet Miles. So was Ryan. He loved vetting your boyfriends and making sure they were good enough for you, even though you two had been dating for a while. 

He especially loved when the boyfriends did fuck up, and he got to scare the living shit out of them. Or worse depending on how bad the fuck up was.

————

You had to set up a meeting for Lindsay and Ryan to meet with your boyfriend. It was only fair. You just hoped no one else tagged along. Especially no one Miles would recognize.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trevor’s mentioned late-girlfriend is not Barbara. It’s not really a reference to any actual person. It’s just a detail I thought would be interesting for his character in this, and maybe help Miles with the fact that his partner is living with an attractive man. Sorry this is kind of a filler chapter. I've got some stuff planned out that will hopefully be soon.


	11. Just a Little Test

Lindsay was mad that it took this long. She’d been on your case for weeks about checking out your cop boyfriend. She even pushed you along, and helped make the plans to meet up.

You and Miles were going to meet Lindsay and Ryan on the boardwalk. Ryan had to tell Jeremy and Gavin they couldn’t join the outing because everyone would recognize them. This was an undercover operation that couldn’t be ruined by purple and orange hair. Gavin only relented after making Ryan wear a button cam and an ear piece. Gavin didn’t like being left out of the fun. Especially when there was someone new to meet.

Jack, however, wasn’t as easily dissuade. Or dissuade at all actually. She said as long as she dressed down, that no one would recognize her. So, one of the founding members of the Fake AH Crew was coming with to meet your boyfriend. You mentally smacked yourself in the face.

Miles met you at your apartment to go to the boardwalk. Trevor had taken over a corner of your living room, which was now covered in papers. You’d told Miles it was apartment hunting paperwork.

Trevor conversationally asked where you were going, when he saw Miles in the apartment.

“We’re going to the pier to meet some of this one’s,” Miles started poking you, “friends.”

Trevor’s face lit up, barely containing laughter, “That sounds like a riot.”

“Do you want to come with?” Miles asked.

“I don’t want to over step,” Trevor tried to dismiss.

“Dude, it’d be great to have someone I already know.”

“It’s just work friends,” you chimed in, knowing at some point you would probably regret letting your boyfriend become friends with the actual leader of the Fakes.

The three of you piled into Miles’ car since you couldn’t all fit on your bike, and Trevor’s cars were still at the penthouse. And then you were on your way to the boardwalk with cheesy 80s music blasting on the radio.

Your phone buzzed with a message from Lindsay, “At the pier :) Headed to the mask store. Betcha can’t guess why XP”

“Of course they are,” you said out loud.

The questioning hum from Miles was answered by Trevor, “Mask store?”

“Yup.”

“What about the mask store?”

“It’s the first thing Ryan wants to do whenever we’re out this way,” you explained.

It wasn’t too much longer before you pulled into the never-too-crowded parking lot. Summer was over, but the temperature wouldn’t drop anymore until winter. So, the beach was still populated by locals. Walking their dogs or huddling around a campfire or grill. 

It wouldn’t be too cold to go to the beach until January, and even then you’d find people determined to brave the chill for the sand. But after August, the tourists stopped over populating the pier, and locals could visit again.

When you made it to the shops, Jack and Lindsay were sitting at a picnic table in front of the mask shop, while Ryan was trying on new masks and scaring the employees. The two women waved you over when you caught their eye.

“I still can’t believe Trevor met you first,” Lindsay said when you sat down, waiting for Ryan.

“So I’ve been told,” Miles chuckled. “I’m Miles,” he reached out his hand for a handshake, which Lindsay eyed, and Jack returned. “It’s nice to meet you.”

“I’ve heard a lot about Mr. Perfect,” Lindsay said watching your face turn red.

Miles smiled at you, “I like the sound of that. Mr. Perfect.” He winked.

Before you could respond, a tall man in a black leather jacket and a black hockey mask over his face walked over to the table. He stood and stared menacingly while Miles jumped up between you and the man.

When the man reached up to take his mask off, Miles’ hand shot up for the holster he usually kept under his blazer. Mask removed, the man laughed, “You passed that test with flying colors,” he held out his hand, “I’m Ryan.”

They both sat down at the picnic table. Miles looked at you for an explanation, heart still racing. You shrugged, “They’re like that. It’s why I put this off for so long. I knew someone would try to scare you.”

Trevor spoke up, “The acquisition company attracts weird people. You know, weird hours and all.” He looked at Jack and Ryan to cement the cover story.

Miles nodded. “So,” Jack said. “You usually packing heat?”

“What?” Miles asked.

Jack looked at him with her signature no-nonsense glare. Don’t let her serious first-impressions fool you, she joins in and creates just as much shenanigans as everyone else on the team, but she also knows how to intimidate a full grown man with a single glare.

“Yeah, I do,” he conceded. “Comes with the territory, I guess.”

“And what territory is that? Big brother, here, hasn’t told me and Jack nearly as much about you as they’ve told Lindsay,” Ryan asked.

Lindsay chuckled, knowing the answer, but also thinking about how they would respond. “Oh, I’m a detective for the LSPD.”Jack and Ryan’s eyes went the slightest bit wide as they looked at you. Ryan gave a, “Hmmm.”

“I wanna hear more about ‘Big brother,’” Miles’ face lit up looking at you.

“They’re job is to watch over us. We would make lots of jokes about how their always watching,” Lindsay said.

“It was creepy at first honestly, felt like someone was always breathing down my neck,” Ryan said. “But they’re just making sure all the jobs run smoothly, and that there aren’t any casualties.”

“Casualties?” Miles asked.

“You know how it is in Corporate America,” Ryan explained.

They interrogated Miles about his life, his job, his family, his friends. Anything they could think of.

When they were out of questions, and nearly out of food truck food, Miles asked how y’all met. “Was it just through work, or…?”

“Well, they were actually a pretty big name in the acquisition market,” Trevor said.

Jack continued, “We talked for a while trying to get them aboard our team. But just being good at your job isn’t enough, you know? There are plenty of assholes who are good at their job.” Jack gestured to Ryan and earned an offended hey. You were sure there was laughing in Ryan’s ear piece, though.

“And they were a freelancer,” Lindsay picked up. “They didn’t stick around one place for too long. Which not only made us worry about them being a team player, but also maybe they wouldn’t want to stick around for more than a few jobs.”

“Hey, I’m still a freelancer,” you interjected.

“Ok,” Lindsay said.

“But they fit very well into our work family. Quipped back. Didn’t let Gavin off the hook when he was an asshole. We didn’t want them to to leave, and here we are, what, five years later?” Ryan said.

“Gavin?” Miles questioned.

“My boyfriend,” Ryan said as Lindsay handed Jack some cash.

“Congrats, dude,” Trevor clapped Ryan on the back.

Everyone talked more casually. Less interrogation on all sides. Miles found out how much everyone loved video games.

“We should get together for some Mario Kart,” Jack said. “Or Halo.”

“Just don’t let that one play,” Trevor pointed at Lindsay.

“I don’t know what you mean,” Lindsay feigned innocence.

Miles looked at you, “Chaotic neutral,” you told him.

Ryan suggested they take this conversation to the sand when he noticed some rival gang members eyeing the table full of Fakes, not wanting them to catch Miles’ attention or start some very-hard-to-explain violence. They were supposed to be glorified accountants, if a fight broke out, it would be rather suspect.

Ryan held you back as everyone got up to head to the beach. “That’s why you hesitated?” He asked once they were out of ear shot, and he’d turned off the comm in his ear.

You knew exactly what he meant. You looked at Miles, smiling and joking with your friends. “Yeah,” you said.

“Look, we care about you. I care about you. You’re family. But you can’t hesitate like that again. Someone could die.”

You nodded.

“We like him, too. But if this relationship could endanger the crew, you might have to make a choice. I hope it doesn’t come to that, he seems to make you happy. But our lives could be on the line.”

You knew he was right, and it was what you needed to hear if not what you wanted to hear.

He put an arm around you, “I’m glad you found a good guy, though. You deserve to be happy.” Ryan hugs were rare. You savored the hug from your friend for a minute before hurrying to catch up with the group.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Busy week packing and a week of camping meant I couldn't upload with my normal schedule. But it did mean that I wrote almost 3 chapters in a week, just gotta type and edit them, and I'll be back to posting every Friday again. I was excited for Miles to meet the reader's family; I didn't really mean for it to take this long but it's here now, and get ready for some drama coming up in the next several chapters.


	12. Dumb and Dangerous

Miles walked into the station the next day, and Kyle asked how meeting the in-laws went.

“They’re cool. A bit intense and oddly intimidating, but they seemed to like me.” Miles told Kyle about Ryan’s test earlier in the day, as Kerry and Cole walked asking more questions about you and your family. Miles made a comment about how they’d like Kerry the best, which lead to a fake argument about who was the coolest.

Chief Haddock left his office to see what the noise was. He told them that they were all nerds so it didn’t matter who was the coolest. He wasn’t serious, since everyone knew he was a nerd, too.

Kerry and Cole soon left to go on patrol around downtown, and Miles and Kyle got to work on the case they were trying to crack. A new, small gang had recently popped up out of nowhere, and they were making threats against the heavy hitters of the city.

Usually, small gangs that tried to get into dick measuring contests with the big guns were easy to take down, with obvious flaws in their plans, or the other gangs would stomp them out quickly. But these guys were still making untraceable threats.

The most recent threat was to a new alliance in the Fake Network, that had come through the newspaper to the head of the crime section, Jon Risinger.

Jon sat in the police department taking notes and telling Miles and Kyle everything he knew about the gang. “I haven’t verified this source, yet,” Jon started telling them, “But I got an anonymous tip about where the head quarters is. It could be a trap, so I don’t want to hear that either of you did something dumb and I have to publish your obituaries.” He waited for a promise that they would be dumb before he gave them the address.

It was of course in the warehouse district because, of course, they weren’t creative.

Before Jon left to go back to the paper he told them, “If one of you die, I will kill the other.”

“Are you threatening a police officer?” Kyle asked.

“Yes,” Jon said. “So, don’t die.”

They all chuckled but promised Jon they would try not to die.

“So,” Kyle started when they sat back down after Jon finally left. “What are we gonna do about that warehouse?”

“We have to look into it. We can’t let any lead go unexplored. Stakeout?” Miles asked.

“Our first stakeout as detectives? Hell yes!”

The two tried to get their stakeout approved, but Haddock didn’t want them rushing into anything without any research. So they had to do some remote surveillance first. They knew they were jumping the gun.

It took hours to get into the warehouse security cameras. When it came to taking down the gangs in this gang-ridden town, the laws ended up being surprisingly lax. They didn’t have a warrant, so they couldn’t make anyone turn over footage from the security systems. The station had a hacker on staff for this very purpose. None of the footage would be admissible in court, but it was just legal enough to get them a foothold to get to the warehouse.

They spent the rest of the day combing through the footage trying to find evidence of a crime that they could use to get the warrant.

By the time Kerry and Cole checked back in the idea went from stakeout, to bust, to sting. Before Kerry and Cole sat down at their own desks, the two detectives jumped up out of the chairs, yelling in excitement. They finally found something they could use.

“Woah, what’s the excitement?” Cole asked.

Kyle turned to him, “We just caught someone smuggling in drugs, and now we can get our warrant!”

“Awesome!” Kerry said. “Warrant for what?”

“You know that gang Kyle and I’ve been tracking for weeks?” Miles asked. “We got a tip about their headquarters, and we’ve been studying their security footage for a bust.”

When Kyle and Miles ran in to the Chief’s office Kerry turned to Cole, “That’s stupid dangerous.”

“You’ll never convince them of that. You know how they are when they’ve got their minds set on something.”

Kyle and Miles ran back out of the office, “We have to wait an hour or so for the judge, but we can do the bust tonight if it’s quick enough,” Miles said.

Sure enough the warrant came through. Any gang related activity was expedited regardless of iffy legalities. The whole job was giving Kerry bad vibes, but he didn’t say anything. Not to them.

Kerry needed to tell someone that Miles would listen to. He dialed your number. You’d given Miles’ coworkers your number for emergencies, and this was definitely an emergency. 

————

You always answered your phone. You couldn’t let it ring and potentially lose a client and lots of money. Most of the time you didn’t even check the caller ID and answered at the first ring. So, you were surprised to hear Kerry on the other end and not some sleaze who wanted you to off his wife or boss.

“Look, I think Miles and Kyle are about to do something really dumb and dangerous, and I know they won’t listen to me.” He gave you the details and how it wasn’t originally going to be a full blown bust, but just a stakeout. But now it was turning into more and more of a sting operation. And it was their first case, and they were excited.

You asked where the warehouse was, and then debated between calling Miles or taking direct action. You dialed his number really quick. You weren’t going to interrogate him or ask obvious questions.

“Hey, I’m sorry. I’m at work. I can’t really talk,” he answered the phone. “Is everything ok?”

“I’m fine, I just had an overwhelming feeling that I should call you and make sure you were ok.”

“I’m fine, babe. I gotta go.”

“Ok, I love you.”

“Love you, too.” You knew he was going to do the dumb thing, so you texted Ryan to meet you at the warehouse.


	13. Protecting a Dumb Boyfriend

And of course when you got to the warehouse, he’s there in full Vagabond. Super inconspicuous. You couldn’t really say anything to him though, you wore some face paint disguising your features, but also making you look like one of Los Santos Most Wanted.

“So, what’s the job?” The Vagabond asked.

“Protecting a dumb boyfriend.”

“Oh?” He held in a chuckle, but the smile was apparent on his face.

“Miles and his partner are planning on doing a bust here tonight, and one of his friends at the station called me to talk him out of it. And I needed your help.”

“To talk them out of it?”

“No, to keep them safe at all cost. I don’t care if we have to kill every goon in that warehouse. Miles and Kyle get out alive. And don’t get caught.”

“Got it.” The two of you hid in silence, waiting waiting for the undercover car to show up. They were in a van marked with a generic logo for a shipping company and parked in the boarding area of a nearby warehouse. They weren’t too close, but still within the line of sight of the gang.

Most of these warehouses were owned by gangs for smuggling drugs, or guns, or whatever needed smuggling. Stolen art. Organs. Exotic pets. You name it, and it’s in a warehouse here. 

The detectives only had to wait long enough to see a crime take place before that could make arrests. It wasn’t a sting, or even a big, whole-gang arrest. Just some bits of the gang. Get the low hanging fruit for their first case.

You and Ryan sat in perfect silence watching the gang and the cops. This is why you called Ryan over anyone else. The rest of the gang was either busy locating Fakehaus, or gets too antsy during stakeouts. 

A van pulled up to the warehouse, and was greeted by the gang. You focused in closer as the opened the back of the van and it was filled with drugs and guns, to no one’s surprise. Miles had to wait until he saw money exchange hands before he could do anything.

As soon as the transaction occurred, Miles and Kyle shot out of their car to make the arrest. They had no backup, these gang members wouldn’t respect the badge and would shoot on sight. You took your silenced sniper and started picking off some of the two-bit criminals as the shootout started, so Miles wouldn’t notice extra bodies dropping.

Ryan snuck around the warehouse, silently killing guards. This gang wasn’t going down without a fight, so you were going to give them one.

Miles and Kyle were doing pretty well in the shoot-out, but they were too outnumbered to win on their own, especially on the gang’s turf. However, with you and Ryan helping, they should be all right. This was what you two were used to.

More goons started pouring out of the warehouse to replace the ones that had fallen. Ryan snuck inside to cut them off from the root. You maneuvered around, out of sight of the cops, and the gang started slowing down. You knew plenty of them weren’t willing to risk their lives and would instead hide until the fighting ended, or they could get a kill in.

You took a cautious step into the warehouse. It was already littered with corpses the Vagabond left behind. You slowly walked around with a silenced gun at the ready in case anyone jumped out at you. After making sure that the first floor was devoid of life, you checked all the rooms.

You dispatched a few people upstairs before Miles and Kyle ran inside. They were horrified at the carnage Ryan left, but soldiered on. You ran to find your friend.

He was in a room, staring at a bloody and bruised man. “These are the people that threatened us, and attacked Fakehaus,” the Vagabond’s voice deep with blood-lust. He sliced the man’s arm above several similar slices and the man screamed. “Where are they? I won’t asked nicely again.”

The man spit and said, “Fuck you.” Vagabond stabbed him in the stomach and then sliced his throat.

“Anything now? Before you die?” Vagabond knelt close to the man who sputtered, eyes wide with fright. He wasn’t any use to you anymore. You held up your gun, waiting for Ryan’s nod, then you ended the man’s suffering, no matter how much you thought he deserved the suffering. But you couldn’t risk him living.

You peaked out of the room to check where Miles was, in case he was on top of you due to the screaming. You didn’t see them, so you two snuck out of the room and down the catwalk to a better hiding spot, and eventually back to the first floor.

On the first floor, you found the cops facing the other way. You hid behind a stack of crates. The cops were looking around, and whispering.

————

Out of your earshot, Miles and Kyle were searching for any sign of life.

“This looks like an attack, but they clearly weren’t under attack when we got here,” Kyle whispered trying to keep focus.

“Dude, this was a slaughter, and the bodies are still warm.”

“You know who’s work this looks like.”

“The Vagabond.”

The cops look at each other, fear in their eyes. They were in the middle of a Vagabond slaughter.

————

As soon as they took their eyes off the massacre around them, one last survivor on the other side of the room got up and aimed a gun at the cops. “Fuck,” you whispered as you got out of your hiding spot and threw a knife at the last surviving gang member while yelling, “Duck!” hoping that the right people would head your warning.

The guy fell to the floor, and three pairs of eyes were glued to you.

“You said ‘don’t get caught.’” Ryan said coming out of his hiding place.

Miles and Kyle stared at you and the Vagabond both covered in blood, standing in the middle of a blood bath.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the upload delay. Hit me up and talk to me. My tumblr is b33squestionmark.tumblr.com if you wanna chat.


	14. The less you know, the better

Your name slipped out of Miles lips. He looked scared more than anything else. Just staring at you. Then, “Big brother. You’re that Big Brother, aren’t you?”

You smile awkwardly.

“The hitman?” Kyle asked.

“Surprise,” Ryan said.

“And your friend, Ryan, is the Vagabond?” Miles asked in disbelief.

Ryan’s mask was on top of his head, showing his face in Vagabond paint. The painted skulls had been getting more elaborate since Jeremy started helping.

“What are you even doing here?” Kyle asked.

“Kerry thought you were in danger, so he called me-”

“Kerry knows?!” Miles interrupted.

“No! No, he doesn’t. No one knows,” you said. “Well, except the other Fakes. No, Kerry was hoping I could talk you out of doing this, but I’m not the best at words.”

Miles stammered. not knowing what to say. “I-I don’t know how I’m supposed to react to this.”

“I was hoping you wouldn’t have to.”

“And what? You’d just lie to me for the rest of our lives?”

“I have no idea. I didn’t really plan this out.”

“Hey,” Ryan said as calmly as possible, “Why don’t we continue this somewhere we aren’t surrounded by dead people?”

All four of you looked around at the bodies littering the warehouse. You nod, and everyone makes their way outside.

“Neither of you can tell anyone about us. For your own safety,” You say before Kyle heads to take the undercover van back to the station. What you said was both a statement of fact, but also a thinly veiled threat.

Rya waits for Kyle to leave before leaving himself, which left you and Miles alone next to a warehouse full of murder.

You reach for Miles hand, “I’m sorry. I didn’t want you to get caught up in all this. Being a cop is dangerous enough here. If you wanted out, I wouldn’t blame you,” you look in his eyes, not wanting this to be over. He made you happy. It’d been a long time since you’d been this happy in a relationship. But you’d let him go if it meant keeping him safe.

“I’m not going anywhere. Not now.” He knew he should run. That this is how he would die. But he was enjoying this journey too much to fear the destination. He squeezed your hand, and you smiled a teary smile.

You lead him to your motorcycle, and drove back to your apartment. The loud engine provided background noise for all the thoughts running through your minds.

When you parked in your dark parking garage, and it was finally quiet again, Miles asked, “Ok, this may be a dumb question, but are all of your friends Fakes?”

You took off your helmet, “I really wish I could say ‘no, I have a life outside the gang,’ but I really didn’t before I met you.”

“Even Treyco?”

You laughed, a deep belly laugh that felt great after all the tension of the night, “Especially Treyco.”

————

Speaking of the devil, Trevor was still awake doing research. He looked up and saw Miles, “So, how did the merger go?”

“He knows,” you told Trevor.

Trevor gave you his signature awkward-smile, which he turned into his fake business smile as he turned to Miles. “Welcome to the Fake family.” He shook Miles’ hand like they were meeting for the first time.

“And now you know why all my friends were weirdly and violently protective when they first met you.”

“Yeah,” was all Miles could squeak out.

“Oh, Trevor, the gang we attacked tonight was a part of the gang that went after Fakehaus. And you two might want to compare notes about them.” You waited a beat. “It’s late, and I’m tired. I’m going to bed. We’ll finish this conversation in the morning.” You went to bed, and Miles followed shortly after.

————

The bed was empty when you woke up. You steeled your nerves. He must’ve changed his mind in the night. You walked to the kitchen to make breakfast, but someone had beaten you to it.

Miles was in the kitchen making eggs and toasting bagels. He greeted you with a kiss. He scrunched his nose and teased you about morning breath.

When he went back to the stovetop, you wrapped your arms around him from behind. And you stayed like that, with him humming some song that was stuck in his head, until the eggs were all cooked.

You both sat down at the breakfast bar, and Miles said, “I’m not going anywhere.”

You chuckled, “You knew what I’d think when you weren’t in bed this morning,”

“I thought making breakfast was more important.”

You cleaned off the dishes when you’d finished eating. “I know this is a tough situation, and I’m sure Ryan and Trevor have told the rest of the crew that you know.”

“And how bad is that exactly?”

“If you and Kyle keep the secret, you’re safe. You’d actually be under our protection. Trevor likes you too much to let anything happen to you.”

“If I don’t?”

You start laughing. A nervous laugh. “This isn’t a threat, but I hope we don’t find out. You know our reputation.”

“Wait, you said Trevor likes me too much?”

“The less you know, the better, my love.”

“Should Kyle meet the crew?”

“He could, but I’m standing by; the less he knows, the safer he’ll be.”

The two of you agreed to invite Kyle over for video games later that week, so he could meet Trevor, but probably no one else.

It was like Trevor knew we were talking about him. He left his room and told you that you were needed. You kissed Miles, and got up to get ready.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I thought this chapter was longer as I was writing it. I'll try to make up for that in the coming weeks.


	15. Royally Fucked

In a throwaway hideout with a large briefing room you learned Fakehaus had been in hiding while Geoff and Trevor were neutralizing the threat. Unfortunately, last night, before your stunt, a few Fakehaus members had actually gotten taken. Apparently the new gang had plants in Fakehaus pretending to be loyal, but the minute the location of the big guys was disclosed, the hideout was attacked.

They’d been safe the whole time, but now they really were kidnapped, of course.

“However,” Trevor said from the front of the briefing room. “An attack from Big Brother and the Vagabond thoroughly scared and pissed them off.”

With a large chunk of the gang now murdered, they were in chaos. Which is possibly the only thing more dangerous than they were when organized. They had to figure out which of several locations the gang was holding Fakehaus in, and at sundown they were going to strike. The cover of night would prevent unwanted casualties as best as possible.

You were free to spend your time as you wanted for until dusk. Jeremy was already at the shooting range when you arrived. You thought that shooting dummies would concentrate you for the big attack. Rimmy Tim must have thought the same. He nodded at you as you take your place into the shooting gallery next to him. You take shots as long as you can hit every bullseye in the field. 

The dirt started to blend in with the targets as your eyes have a hard time focusing on the task. You packed up your rifle, and headed out after an hour of shooting. Jeremy shouted a goodbye. You shouted one back. 

Gavin and Trevor were doing surveillance to narrow down the options. They were arguing about something. Neither of them argued seriously, so you weren’t concerned. They never stayed mad, you weren’t sure they ever actually got mad at each other anyway.

Michael and Jack were double and triple checking the vehicles. We couldn’t let anything break or fail during the rescue. Jack was elbows deep in the engine of the helicopter tweaking bits here and there, asking Michael to hand her tools here and there. Michael was telling her some story about his daughter.

Michael had convinced Lindsay to stay behind. They’d just announced a second kid on the way, and he told her that he wouldn’t be able to focus on the rescue if he was worried about her. She told him he didn’t have to worry, and she could handle herself. He knew that; it was one of the reasons he loved her. She eventually stayed behind, but not before texting you, complaining about the whole thing.

Geoff and Ryan were debating different strategies. Whether they should go stealthy, or all out ambush. Ryan was arguing for a stealthier approach, but everyone knew they would go with surprise ambush. The Fake AH crew was good at a lot of things. Stealth wasn’t one of them. Most of the crew, individually, could do stealth, but you get everyone together and they’re about as sneaky as a bag of bricks through your front window.

Your hands were shaking with pent up energy. You paced back and forth through the cramped kitchen of the tiny apartment-hideout they were crowded into. You couldn’t stand around waiting doing nothing until night fall. You needed a distraction. And preferably nothing illegal. Not right now.

You left. You weren’t even sure where you were headed until you parked your motorcycle in the visitor’s parking at the police station. You stood by your bike, and sent a text to Miles that you were there and needed to talk.

He peeked out of the station curiously and met you at your bike. “I’m sorry, I just needed to talk,” the first thing out of your mouth was an apology.

“Hey, hey,” he repeated until you took a deep breath. “What’s wrong? Is it something you can talk to me about?”

You looked around suddenly realizing where you were. “Not here.”

Miles pulled out his phone. “I’m going to text KT and Haddock that I’m taking lunch.”

“I didn’t mean to make you drop everything.”

“This sounds important. Where to?” He put on his helmet.

You drove to a popular restaurant a few streets over. “You know Fakehaus has been missing for a while, right?” Miles nodded. “They’d been in hiding until yesterday.” You filled Miles in on all the info you’d gotten earlier in the day. “And I couldn’t hug around doing nothing. I don’t know why we’re waiting until nightfall, and not just going the minute we figure out what building they’re in. But I know I trust them to know their strategy better than I do.”

Miles had been listening and he smiled at you, “It sounds like you have a tight-knit team that has your back and you can trust. That’s rare.”

“We make a good team, you’re right. I guess that’s why I haven’t left yet. I don’t usually stick with a team this long.”

“I’m glad I have the team I do. I can’t just bail like you can.”

“If I’ve learned anything, it’s that you can bail from anything at any point.”

“You say to your boyfriend,” Miles said into his cup, with a wry smile.

“Can doesn’t mean will,” you chuckled and took his hand. Miles’ phone buzzed.

“Shit, I gotta get back.” You flagged down the waiter and paid your bill, plus a sizable cash tip. You remember living from paycheck to paycheck.

You left the restaurant. There was a small alley between you and the parking lot. As you passed the alley, someone stepped out in front of you. “Put your hands up!”

You rolled your eyes as you both raise your arms. “You don’t have to do this,” Miles said, always believing the best in people.

The man chuckled, and pointed a gun at Miles’ chest.

“This is a bad idea,” you stayed calm. “You don’t know what you’re getting yourself into.”

“I know exactly what I’m getting myself into, Brother.” The man smiled at you and with a sharp pain to the back of your head, the world went black.

————

You blinked, blinded by the bright light of the room. Ropes tightened around your wrists as you fidgeted, trying to figure out where you were.

A groan next to you snapped you fully into consciousness. Tied to a chair next to yours, was Miles. No. He wasn’t supposed to get mixed up in this shit. Fuck.

“Miles!” You whispered loudly. You tried to kick him to wake him up, but your legs were tied to the chair, too. This wasn’t the first time this had happened to you, but you could safely guess that Miles had never been kidnapped before. You whispered his name again, and his eyes shot open. 

“What’s going on? Where are we?” he panicked.

“Hey, hey, take a deep breath.” You try to calm him down, when the door burst open.

“You killed an entire warehouse of my men!” And angry man you didn’t recognize stormed in, yelling. “You will pay for that!” He smacked you across the face.

“Do your worst,” you weren’t scared of him. You’d been here before. You’d probably taken worse than this guy could dish out.

“You’re so eager,” the man smiled, “You don’t even know what I want.”

“You want to know about the Fake AH Crew, right? I don’t break easily. Bad for business.” It was difficult to seem aloof or intimidating when you were tied to a chair, but you were trying as hard as you could.

“I wouldn’t be too quick to say that,” the man laughed and punched Miles in the stomach. “Who’s the new leader of the Fake AH Crew?”

Miles coughed and sputtered, and you looked from him to the man standing over you.

You’d royally fucked up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please comment, it really makes my day. Even just a heart or some exclamation points if you want. I hope you're all enjoying this!


	16. Scars

Miles was slumped over in his bindings. Covered in bruises. Blood dribbling out of his mouth. One of his eyes swollen shut.

He didn’t have a stake in this. You had no right to let him get hurt to protect your crew. Your cheeks were stiff with dried tears. You hadn’t given Trevor up to save Miles, and the man would be back any minute.

“Hey,” you whisper, “The crew will be here, they’ll get us out of this. They were already on their way.” You tried to reassure him.

“Yeah?” He wheezed out. “They’re a little fucking late.”

“I’m so sorry,” you drop your head. “We were trying- I was trying to keep you away from all this bullshit. And. And as soon as I stop paying fucking attention…” You looked over at him. “This was never supposed to happen to you.”

The men barge in again. This time with knives of all shapes and sizes. You fight the shock and pain from showing on your face.

“How touching,” the man said, clearly having listened to your conversation.

The man grabbed a small knife and turned to Miles, “I’m going to start with my smallest knife and work my way up to my largest until your girlfriend gives up the Fakes.”

He pressed the knife to Miles’ forearm which had been tied to the arm of his chair. The man mad several quick slices.

“No!” You yelled. “Cut me instead! Stop it!”

The man stopped and faced the cart full of knives, and grabbed the next one, a normal sized pocket knife. He looked at you over his shoulder. “You could stop this whole thing if you’d just tell me about the Fakes.”

He made a slice on Miles’ skin. “Where are they?” Another slice, “Who’s the leader?” Slice. “Who’s the Vagabond?” Slice.

Miles didn’t say anything. He didn’t make any noise. His eyes were squeezed shut and he focused on breathing. He was a cop, he knew what to do if he were tortured. But actually being tortured was a lot different than sitting in a poorly lit room in the academy telling you not to show weakness.

“I-” you looked at Miles, warm tears streaming down your cheeks again. “I can’t.”

The man slashed at Miles’ face with the pocket knife, leaving a huge gash from his forehead to his cheek. Blood covered his eye that hadn’t been swollen shut.

The man worked his way up a few knife sizes before he yelled at you again demanding information. You were fully sobbing. “Tell me! Where are they? Who is the Vagabond?!”

Immediately after the words left his mouth, and explosion sent rubble flying into the room, crushing one henchman, and the wall crumbled.

“I am, bitch!” A familiar deep voice yelled right before he shot the other henchman dead, and the leader in the stomach.

Jeremy and Gavin ran in from behind Ryan and started untying you. “No!” you yelled. “Miles first.” The pair moved to your unconscious boyfriend, while Ryan jogged over to you and cut your bindings in a few swift cuts.

You ran over to Miles as soon as your legs were free to run. They felt like jelly, but getting to Miles was the only thing you could focus on.

“Are you ok?” Gavin asked you.

“They barely fucking touched me. They knew hurting him would break me faster.”

Ryan grabbed the man responsible for all of Miles’ pain. “Did you tell him anything?” He asked you.

“I didn’t say a thing.” 

“Hey,” Jeremy said to Miles, who was stirring awake. “Are you ok?”

Miles shook his head ‘no.’ He looked up and blinked a few times, “Rimmy Tim?”

“The one and only.”

Jeremy helped a slumped Miles out of the room and over the rubble where Trevor was waiting to help your boyfriend out to an escape vehicle.

Ryan tied up the gang leader, “You’re coming with us,” he growled and dragged the man outside.

You turned to Gavin, “How’s Fakehaus? Did you find them?”

“They were here, too. Everyone’s safe now.” You breathed a sigh of relief. 

“And the gang?”

“All dead?” Tension you didn’t realize you were holding, melted away from you. You collapsed into Gavin, and he helped you out of the destroyed building. “You’re safe now, Love.” He whispered reassurances to you as he lead you out to a getaway car.

————

“Is anyone left alive?” Geoff asked of the gang in the building.

“Just this guy,” Ryan held up his restrained victim.

Gavin placed you in the passenger seat next to Jack, and hopped in the back with Miles and Trevor. Before she drove off, Ryan knocked on your window. “Do you want me to wait for you to deal with this guy?”

You chuckled at his morbid thoughtfulness, “Thanks for the offer, but I think I’ve seen enough torture for one day. I trust you to do a good job by yourself.” He nodded, and Jack sped off toward the hospital.

The crew didn’t often go to hospitals for legal reasons. Doctor’s and nurses get very suspicious about people coming in all the time to fix up bullet wounds, and they aren’t as easily paid off as some professions. But Miles’ record was clean, and needed professional attention. The four of you ushered Miles into the ER demanding immediate treatment.

It was the middle on the night, and he was really beat up, so the demanding was completely unnecessary. But you were scared and being demanding. They took Miles in to patch him up,

You called Miles’ friends while you waited, and told them a very watered down version of what happened. You called Miles’ parents. You hadn’t met them in person, yet because they lived in another state. But you’d talked to them on the phone or video with Miles. You told them that he was in the hospital, but he would be ok.

By the time you finished the last call, a nurse came out and told you that he would be fine, and you could come visit for a few minutes. They would be keeping him for observation for 24 hours, but he should be good to go home after that.

Jack and Gavin had gone home once they made sure you were fine, but Trevor had stayed with you, waiting. Kyle came running into the waiting room just as the nurse left and the three of you go to Miles’ room.

He was awake, but on heavy pain killers. You rushed into the room to hug him. “Gentle, babe,” he slurred. “Broken ribs.”

“I’m so sorry.”

He just shook his head and put his finger up to your mouth the shush you. “No sorry. I’m alive.”

Trevor and Kyle each went in for hugs and chatted for a minute before Miles said he needed sleep. You hung back for a second longer than the other two. “I’ll make sure nothing like this ever happens to you again.”

Miles could barely keep his eyes open, but he responded. “I’ma cop. In LS. S’dangerous. Would f happen anyways.” You kissed his forehead and headed outside.

————

When you got to the parking lot, Kyle said, “It’s your fault he’s in that bed, isn’t it?”

Trevor started to yell at him and defend you, but you cut him off before he could actually say anything. “Yes, it is. He got kidnapped because he’s connected to the Fake AH crew now.”

“He knows, too?” Trevor asked you.

You and Kyle nod.

“Does anyone else know?”

You assure Trevor that only Kyle and Miles know.

“Did you put him in danger?” Kyle asked.

Your eyes welled up, but you’d cried to much that day that nothing could fall. You shook your head. “I tried not to, but some things are out of my control.”

“I can’t forgive you for hurting my best friend, yet, but I know that he already has.”

“I haven’t either, don’t worry. What sucks, is that even if he broke up with me today, it’s already too late. He knows my identity, and Ryan’s. You both are already in danger. You could cut ties, but you already know.”

Kyle nodded slowly, and left.

“You just let him yell at you,” Trevor said to you as you walked to the car that had been dropped off for you.

“I’m tired, Trevor.”

“You still didn’t have to let him talk to you like that.”

“He was scared. His best friend almost died. And unlike Ryan, he doesn’t have the actual person that hurt him to take it out on, and I didn’t want the resentment to build up and explode at some point even worse. I gave this some thought.”

————

Trevor drove to your apartment. “I guess I can move back to the penthouse now that we’re not under threat, huh?”

You laughed and told him, “No rush.”

“Maybe if I’m gone, the place won’t be so crowded for you and Miles.” He winked.

You shoved him and went to bed.

By the time you woke up, Trevor had completely moved his stuff out of your apartment. He left you a thank-you note taped to your door.

You went back to the hospital to check on Miles. You’d slept so long that he could be checked out in just a few hours. You didn’t get a restful night of sleep; it was full of nightmares about the kidnapping and Miles not making it. You kept having to wake up and remind yourself that everything was ok, and everyone was safe.

Miles room was full of flowers and friends. You were greeted by Kerry, Cole, Jon, Blaine, and Kyle. One of them had even brought a laptop so Miles could talk to his parents. Miles’ face lit up when he saw you walk in.

His eye wasn’t swollen anymore, but he had quite a shiner. The gash on his face was covered with a large bandage. It would turn into a rugged scar soon. He looked fragile on that bed in a way that you’d never seen the 6’2” cop look. But he was surrounded with love and support, and he actually seemed happy.

————

You and Miles decided to move in together when his ribs healed. However, when the move came, no not let Miles lift anything anyway.

All of your combined friends helped in the move. Your new, shared apartment was a revolving door of people over the few weeks it took you to move.

On the last official day of the move, your new apartment was full of boxes and friends. You and Lindsay were in the kitchen making some food for everyone. She wanted to help, and since she couldn’t carry boxes due to the baby bump, she would help cook. She wasn’t a great chef, but its hard to mess up mac n cheese, or a frozen pizza.

You leaned back on the counter and looked at your living room stuffed with Miles, Kyle, Ryan, Jeremy, Kerry, Cole, Gavin, Michael, Jack, Jon, Blaine, Geoff, and Trevor. They were laughing and joking, all drinking beer or whatever drink they preferred.

Miles’ friends had a lot to say about your heavily tattooed boss, or your coworker with purple and orange hair peaking out for under his hat. Kyle shared a look with you. He knew, and he wouldn’t say anything to anyone else.

“How do you keep from getting jealous with your partner hanging around all these hot guys all the time?” Jon jokingly asked Miles.

Miles laughed, and grabbed his mostly healed ribs. “Even if i was jealous, I couldn’t stand a chance against anyone of them in a fight.” Jon looked around in confusion. “Plus, they all helped save my life.”

Most of Miles’ bandages were off at this point. He still got some looks from strangers at the healing gash on his face. You were even more covered in scars from years of fighting, so you liked the scars. You were just waiting for the day that looking at his face didn’t make you feel guilty.

Things were finally going well for the two of you. You leaned into Lindsay, looking at all your friends, new and old, and your boyfriend having a good time, laughing, helping each other. You could get used to this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, this could have been two chapters. But I liked it too much as one. Only the epilogue after this, guys. Thank you so much for reading and enjoying this story!


	17. Epilogue

It had been several months since the incident. Miles’ physical injuries were completely healed, but there were still many nights that he would wake up, unable to control his breathing, from a nightmare about that night. He still had panic attacks around knives. It was several weeks before he could through a day without a panic attack and he felt ready to go back to work.

He was always there for you, too, when you would scream yourself awake with nightmares about that night, or other traumatizing nights since you became an assassin, or from your time in the army. Sometimes you still had nightmares about trying to support your family while in high school or about your father’s death.

With each other’s support, things were going better. There was a lot to celebrate between your friends in the last few months. Kerry and Cole got their promotion to detective. Miles got several honors and a nice raise for suffering(bravery) on the line of duty. Jon published a book about the history of gangs in LS. Michael and Lindsay welcomed their second child into the world. Blaine directed a blockbuster movie. Geoff retired completely from the Fake AH crew and finally married Jack.

Miles decided he wanted to celebrate everyone’s victories with a long weekend in a rented cabin in the mountains. He invited all of your friends. The line between his friends and your friends had become scarily blurred, and you often had cops and crooks under one roof getting along great, joking together, and making empty threats during video games.

You’d always liked the mountains to the north of the city. You’d spent many date nights on a ridge staring at the stars, and post-heist-cool-down evenings out there where no one would get mad if you shot fireworks without a license. But you loved seeing the mountain through Miles’ eyes. He saw mystery, danger, and wonder he wanted to explore.

Not everyone in the cabin was a morning person. So, going for an early morning hike was a good, natural way to get a group small enough to be enjoyable. Blaine, Michael, Jon, Jeremy, Kyle, Jack, and Miles all went on a nice easy hike at the crack of dawn.

You spent the whole day on the back porch enjoying the view of the city with the half of the group that stayed back. When the hiking group did finally get back, Miles was really excited about this restaurant they’d found on the way back that he wanted for dinner. 

It wasn’t a fancy restaurant, but Miles thought it would be fun if everyone dressed up anyway. Geoff wore his signature crumpled tux, which earned some side eye from the non-criminals in the group, which Geoff ignored. You, Jack, and Lindsay wore nice dresses. Gavin, always looking for an excuse to dress up, wore a white suit with gold accents, and spent a good half hour yelling at Jeremy that he couldn’t wear his Rimmy suit for so many reasons. He eventually got Jeremy in a tailored indigo suit.

Most everyone dressed up in their own way, Ryan still wore jeans but the outfit looked nice. Jon wore a suit with an obnoxiously loud Hawaiian print. 

The group looked really over dressed for the cute taco shop you walked into. You made your order, and Miles swooped in to pay before you could get your card out of your annoying clutch. The large group pushed several tables together so you could all sit and talk and joke with each other without having to yell across the dining room at the restaurant. 

Shortly after Miles finished eating, he got a text from the owner of the cabin that the alarm had been triggered. “It’s probably just a raccoon or something knocked into the door, but I should go check on this.” Kyle, Jon, Blaine, and Cole got up to leave with him. You started to get up, “Don’t worry about it, babe. You stay here. Finish eating. Besides you wanted to check out those shops down the street anyway.”

“Ok,” you said. “If you insist.”

He kissed you real quick and the group ran out of the building to pile into Miles’ car. When you had all finished your amazing tacos, Lindsay and Gavin grabbed you and pulled you to the little downtown area. The rest of the group followed behind, less enthusiastic about a shopping spree.

At least that was until Ryan discovered a shop selling replica weapons from video games. Then you lost most of the group to that store. You had a large soft spot for browsing through cheesy tourist trap stores. You shopped for about an hour until the sun started to go down. The remaining group of Fakes and Kerry, piled into two cars and headed back to the cabin.

Your car got there last, and everyone seemed to be in a rush to get in. When you stepped outside, music filled the air. The wrap-around porch was covered in white Christmas lights, and from the ceiling, hung tiny pictures of you and Miles and your friends. A sniffle to your right took your attention, and you caught a tear trailing down Trevor’s cheek. And you realize that it’s just the two of you standing there; everyone else had run past you to the porch.

Trevor offered you his arm and walked you down the wrap-around toward the source of the music. Just as you turn the corner, your song started playing, and Miles, very handsome in his suit, dropped to one knee.

“I know this seems fast, but we have been through more tests of this relationship than most couples ever get. Will you marry me?” He opened a ring box to reveal the most beautiful ring you’d ever seen.

You opened your mouth, but no words came out. You grab Miles’ face, and pull him up into a kiss, nodding your head without breaking the kiss. You laugh, “I don’t even know what hand the ring goes on.” And you hold out your right hand for the ring, only to get Lindsay and Jack yelling at you, “Wrong hand!”

You look around at all your friends, most of whom have their phones out taking pictures. And Gavin who you knew was filming ran over to you and demanded posed pictures of you two and the ring. 

When Gavin was satisfied after a few dozen pictures, everyone else mobbed you in a big hug. If only you could show this life full of love and friends (and money) to the lonely high schooler working two jobs to support their family that you used to be.

————

Life in Los Santos was a dangerous gamble of emotional attachments. Most people walked around perfectly safe and ignoring the destruction that surrounded them. Some people avoided getting close to people, afraid that they would lose someone they loved. You were so glad that wasn’t you anymore. You wouldn’t say your life was complicated despite you and your fiancé standing on opposite sides of the law. The gamble was completely worth it, and you didn’t end up with egg on your face.

-Fin-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the end. I can't believe I finished that. I'm so excited! I know the ending was mushy, but I like happy endings. If you aren't super about getting married, I'm sorry. I just thought this was cute.


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